We have had such a great start the school year here at Scott Carpenter! The YESS Program has been filled with laughter, great conversation, and a ton of community building. August has been spent experimenting with group dynamics, working on some tough challenges you will see below, and really getting to know each other.
The YESS students have learned and practiced circle talks and what it means to listen to each other to create spaces where we all feel heard. We have started building a comfort level with each other by coming up with skits to show the right ways to be in the classroom and the wrong ways to be in the classroom. These were wonderfully awkward to watch and the kids were able to safely laugh with each other.
We have played a lot of fun team games together like Indiana Jones, the video below, where the class had to roll the ball as fast as they could to try to get the runner. We played Ellen's Game HeadsUp, video also below, which was filled with enthusiasm all day!
This week we worked on a team challenge called Shark Tank where the students explored what it means to be an entrepreneur and maybe how hard it is to pitch their ideas. The teams were given a random item, like a jump rope, drum, fidget spinner, anything I had in my classroom really. Then they had to decide what the item is, what it does, and it couldn't be or do what the item actually was or did. They had to determine how much it cost to make, how much they were going to actually charge for it, and how much they were going to ask for from the Sharks (or Judges). Then they had to present to the Sharks and pitch their idea, this was also wonderfully awkward to watch as some of the pitches were just great. Thank you Portia at Adam's City Middle School for this idea! They are already asking to do it again next week. There is a video below of one of my favorite inventions inspired by Kylie Jenner!
